Disclaimer: the usual… I own nothing of this fantastic universe!

Chapter 3: The secret

That voice... in spite of these cries, I would have recognized it anywhere!

I jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. Edward seemed reluctant but ultimately did nothing to keep me. I emerged on the landing of a staircase; the cries that had now moved into groans came from the floor above. I dashed for their source, my heart beating, much more by fear of the sight that would be offered to me than by my poor physical condition. I opened the door and stopped abruptly.

Relief mingled with anxiety invaded me: it was him, he was alive! But he was dying, his face twisted in pain, in a sweat. He was such patients suffering from these tropical fevers, pale and delirious. He murmured once again my name, and I quickly crossed the room to be at his bedside.

I stroked his hair gently: "Shhh, I'm here, everything is fine... calm down." My voice seemed to soothe him, he was breathing more gently but his face remained contracted by the pain.

They do not therefore give him morphine? Neither perfusion nor medical device were surrounding him...

"That would be useless" replied Edward to my silent question.

I really would not go through with it!

"That's how we knew your name" he said as if he had not heard. "He has never ceased repeating it..."

"He is very worried about you" painfully completed another voice, still unknown to me.

It came from the corner of the room farthest away from the bed, the darkest as well. He was a man, pale too - a family trait? - prostrate in an armchair. I could not distinguish his face properly though, hidden in the half-light of the room.

"Stop torturing yourself Jasper, you won't relieve him by remaining at his side. It's a physical pain, not an emotional one..."

Jasper?

"What do you..."

But he did not have time to finish his sentence that another cry resounded in the room. It did not come from Josh however, but from me: I had just recognized this name, recognized to which horrible and scaring person, or should I say animal, it belonged.

"It's HIM! Him who attacked us! He is a madman, a maniac!"

My screams brought Carlisle and Esme. Carlisle tried to approach me, to calm me.

"This is not what you think" he said, almost pleading.

"What is he doing here?" I cried, hysterical, shaking like a leaf. Instinctively, I was leaning on Josh, in a position meant to be protective, although in vain.

"Jasper!" retorted Carlisle, and suddenly a wave of calm overwhelmed me, as if someone had just injected me a sedative. Yet I had not felt the needle... The fury left room to confusion: why were they protecting this maniac? And above all why had they left him in Josh's room? So as to better finish his job?

"It was an accident, Edward justified, we do only feed on animals."

"What?"

"Lena, Carlisle continued, we are... vampires."

"Vampires?" I repeated, incredulous.

But it is a crazy family! Yes that's right, they are completely mad!

I started to laugh, probably nervously.

"Vampires! Haha! Frankly I've almost believed it! No but seriously, vampires, and in addition, vegetarian ones! There you've gone a bit too far..."

They did not react to my disbelief, simply staring at me as if I was the one who had got a screw loose!

"I've understood, it is a joke! There is a hidden camera somewhere!" I cast furtive glances here and there, to find the device...

Still no answer. Esme looked alternately at Carlisle and Edward, looking embarrassed.

"No, seriously... tell me what's the matter with him." They started getting on my nerves: when one is uncovered, one ceases comedy!

Jasper took his face in his hands, looking devastated. Sincerely, joke or not, I could not help but hate him for what he had done.

"Lena..." I turned my eyes towards Josh, squeezing his hand more tightly. He leant his head towards me, his eyes still closed, thus revealing a mark at the base of his neck. A bite mark, made a few hours earlier.

No, this is not possible, vampires only exist in books or movies! That would be known if they were real!

"We have no interest in revealing our existence to anyone" argued Edward.

"We?" I asked, without needing to listen to the answer: of course, they all had the same pale skin, the same amber eyes, with the exception of Jasper whose eyes kept a tint of red.

My breathing became faster: if they told the truth, I was currently in an isolated house, encircled by vampires who apparently were not afraid of daylight and could at any moment throw themselves on me!

I felt a new wave of calm. From where did it come? I was doped or what?

"We are as you said vegetarians: you have nothing to fear" Carlisle said then, in a reassuring tone.

"And no, no one doped you" said Edward, his mocking tone back, "It's Jasper: he can feel and control the emotions."

That explained a lot of things but did not surprise me more than that: after having learned of the existence of vampires, the one of a telepath or an empath nearly left me cold!

"So this is your secret?"

"Yes, said Carlisle, and it absolutely must stay as it is! That would put us all in danger if it were revealed..."

"The Volturi..." They looked at me, surprised that I know that word. "I heard you earlier... but I don't want to know."

I had my account of frights for the next ten years!

Josh suddenly groaned and I finally understood the gravity of his state: he had been bitten by a vampire, and in the few films that I saw, it never ended well...

"Is he dying?"

"Technically yes" Carlisle sighed.

"Technically? Because there is a difference between technically dying and dying as such?" I said sarcastically.

"His body is dying but his spirit will remain, he is becoming one of us."

"Josh is going to be a ... a vampire?"

It was too much information for me. I had to think, to summarize it all...

So, apparently the Cullen are vampires, but nothing to fear, they are vegetarians.
Except that one should be a bit wary as it is one of them who attacked Josh and put him in this state. And it is a rather desperate one since incurable, leading him right to the existence of vampire...

At least he was not going to die, to disappear... but a vampire! I did not know anything about vampires and those apparently had nothing in common with Dracula and company... I felt lost, I wanted to ask lots of questions, but at the same time the answers scared me...

"Perhaps we could continue this conversation in the living room, you certainly have many questions and Josh must rest"

"I won't leave him alone! "I cried, before justifying: "if he awakes... I do not want him to wake up alone."

"The transformation usually lasts 3 days, he won't awake before."

"And I will stay there" added Jasper, whose I had almost forgotten the presence. Overwhelmed with remorse, he apparently wanted to do everything possible to redeem himself.

"No way!"

"Jasper, it is better that you go down with the others" gently replied Esme who then looked at me, eyes full with tenderness "I am staying here to take care of him."

I did not want to leave. I remained there, motionless, staring into space: I felt helpless, unable to relieve him. But if Josh became one of them, I needed to know more. And then, after all, he did not risk worse than that…

I agreed, reluctantly, to leave his hand, and I tenderly laid a kiss on his forehead before following Carlisle, Edward and Jasper outside...


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